Way Home
by PocketFox
Summary: What if the home you worked so hard to save... isn't home anymore? KH2 spoilers, RxS
1. Chapter 1

AN: A quick note before we begin. I'd like to dedicate this first chapter to **ObsessdOne**, since it was a concept in her fanfic "Everyday" that inspired me to start this story. Woot!

* * *

It was too bright. It hurt sensitive eyes long accustomed to the darkness. It was harsh and abused skin used to the comforting embrace of shadows. It exposed everything, leaving nowhere to disappear. Riku glared at the sun from his hiding spot in one of the play trees, as though it had done him some personal offense.

Now it was sinking into the sea, becoming a blazing orange ball and staining everything with red and pink and orange, heralding the arrival of night. Night was the time Riku lived for these days, when shadows finally overtook the world, and he could slip into them and disappear. The moon would be full tonight, but that was all right. Its light was cool and silver and unintrusive. It didn't invade and expose; it simply was. Riku liked moonlight. It was like himself.

Riku folded his arms across his broad chest and continued to glare at the evening sky. Eventually his eyes drifted down to the dock, where five small shapes stood watching the sunset, and he glared at them too without really realizing it. They were perfectly happy out in the sun. They reveled in it, and it was their home, in a way it had never been for him, not even before the initial destruction of the islands that started everything. He was jealous of them, though he would have sliced his stomach with his own sword before he would have admitted it out loud.

At the thought of his blade, Riku tensed his jaw, reaching a hand out in front of him and curling his fingers as he imagined the familiar feel of the hilt in his grip. His sword, like himself, was a thing of darkness, even once it had changed from Soul Eater to Way to the Dawn. It wouldn't survive here, and he missed it. It had been a constant in his life, like the darkness, and now both had been stolen away from him… just like all his constants had.

Aqua eyes drifted back down towards the dock, where the little cluster of shapes still lingered. As he surveyed the scene, one detached itself from the group and began heading up the docks. Recognition made Riku straighten and watch intently, and he even stepped out of his little shelter. The last of the sunlight glinted off his silver hair, drawing the approaching boy's attention. At least the sun was good for something, Riku thought wryly.

Once Sora was climbing the ladder to the tree hollow, Riku retreated again, further into the shade this time. When his friend eventually joined him, he finally spoke. "Aren't you going home with the others?"

Sora's first answer was a shrug, followed by, "It's not like they can't get back to the main island without me. And you weren't there, so I figured I'd come look for you. Hiding again?" A subtle lift and drop of one of Riku's powerful shoulders was the answer to that. The brunette sighed and went to sit on a ragged pallet near where his older friend was leaning. There was a long, companionable silence; the pair of them understood each other in a way that not even they quite comprehended, and there was no real need for words. Finally, Sora broke the quiet with a soft announcement that not even Riku expected.

"I know how you feel, you know," he began, running a hand through his hopelessly unruly brown hair. "I feel weird too, being here. I do all the stuff I used to do because they expect me to, but… I don't belong anymore." Here he looked up at his companion, blue eyes serious. "_We_ don't belong here anymore."

Riku didn't answer at first, simply moving to sit beside Sora, back braced against the wall, one knee bent with his arm resting on it. "I never expected to hear that from you," he finally replied, his quiet tone matching Sora's. "You always seemed so upbeat and happy. I thought you were thrilled to be back."

Sora pulled both knees against his chest and hugged them. "I was. I am. I mean, how could I not be? This is home." They both knew he was trying to convince himself of that fact more than anything. Trying and failing.

"We took different paths," Riku said.

"But they were still both paths in darkness," Sora finished with a slight nod. "It was… all we knew, even if we were fighting for the light."

The sun had finally set and darkness taken over most of the sky. Riku pushed himself to his feet, finally venturing into open air, and a soft shuffle behind him told him Sora was following, so he continued the conversation. "But we weren't fighting for it for our own sakes. We were doing it for everyone else, so… I guess it isn't so surprising if we don't feel like we belong." He turned halfway to look at his partner with one pale eye. "Real heroes aren't the ones who get happy, fluffy endings. They're the ones that come, do their thing, then fade away again while someone else gets the glory." He felt surprisingly sad as he said this, but not for his own sake. Somehow he'd always known it was his destiny to live in darkness, and it felt right. But it shouldn't be that way for Sora. Not Sora, who was so bright and cheerful and full of light. If anyone deserved one of those cliché happy endings, where the hero got the girl and lived happily ever after, it was him.

Either he had let slip those thoughts out loud, or Sora was starting to read minds, because the brunette stepped to his side and entwined their hands. "My happy ending is anything that involves you being with me, Riku, even if it means staying here."

The other teenager quirked a brow. "'Even'?" he echoed. "You make it sound like you don't want to stay."

"I don't," Sora answered bluntly. "This… We don't belong here. Ever since we got back, I've been going through the motions and all the time wishing I had stayed in the darkness. I knew what I was doing there, I knew I had a purpose." His grip on Riku's hand tightened as his tone grew more impassioned. "And maybe Kairi can go back to the way she was like nothing ever happened, like she didn't know there was a whole universe out there, but I can't! Maybe that one little glimpse she got was enough, but not for me. Not now."

"So let's go home."

"Huh?"

Riku spun Sora around and gripped his shoulders, staring at him intently. "Let's go home, Sora. Let's go back to where we belong now, to the darkness. They don't need us here anymore. Hell, maybe they'll even forget us when we go, like before. So let's just go."

Sora gripped Riku's biceps, unable to contain the glimmer of hope that leapt up in his eyes. "But how do we get there? The paths are closed, and we don't have any way of making new ones." Questions of Kairi, of family, of being missed didn't even occur to him yet.

The silver-haired young man released his friend and swept out his arm, somehow totally unsurprised when Way to the Dawn appeared in his hand, just as it always had before when he'd called it. "People like us, Sora… We can make our own paths."


	2. Chapter 2

It was too dark, and Kairi was frightened. The shadows were everywhere, clawing at her, seeming to wriggle across her skin like incorporeal snakes. Yellow eyes, heartless eyes, stared out at her from the dark, the only points of light in this black world, and Kairi recoiled from them.

"Sora!" Her voice was high and desperate, close to cracking. "Sora, where are you? Riku!"

Kairi started to run, her sneakers making no sound against the ground underneath them. She ran blindly, seeking only to escape the clutching, suffocating shadows, and she closed her clear blue eyes against the ever-present glittering yellow ones surrounding her. So she didn't see the young man in front of her until she barreled straight into him and was neatly caught before she could hit the ground. Immediately she began to struggle, striking out in an effort to escape, but strong hands pinned her arms.

"Kairi! Kairi, it's okay, it's just me." Sora! It was Sora, Sora was here! Kairi's eyes jerked open as she stared, before she threw her arms around her friend's neck and clung tight. He embraced her, murmured soothing words in her ear.

Finally she pushed herself away just enough to meet his eyes. "Sora, I'm frightened," she admitted, voice quavering.

Sora smiled and stroked her hair. "I know, Kairi. You don't belong here, so it's really scary for you, huh?"

She nodded. "Let's get out of here. Let's go home."

"What do you mean, Kairi?" Sora seemed genuinely confused, and Kairi's heart froze. "I am home…"

Kairi jerked awake with a start, blue eyes wide and hands clenched in the sheet. For a few seconds she just stared at the ceiling, getting her bearings, before she realized it had been a dream. A horrible, chillingly lifelike dream. The redhead pressed a hand over her thudding heart, willing it to slow down. It was all right, really. Sora would never do that. He would never go to the darkness and call it home; he loved the light too much for that.

The girl rolled onto her side, hugging her pillow as she glanced at the clock. Still only a quarter to four in the morning… With a sigh, she closed her eyes and tried to get back to sleep.

* * *

Later that morning, at a more decent hour, Kairi raced to the play island to find her two friends. Despite her attempts to reassure herself, she still couldn't shake the feeling of prophetic dread the dream had given her. She had to find Sora and Riku and make sure they were still here, that they were all right. 

Relief flooded her when she found their boats already at the docks, though the boys themselves were nowhere in sight. Scrambling onto the weatherworn wood of the pier, Kairi immediately took off to find them.

Eventually she discovered them in the last place she would have expected to: tucked into one of the trees, out of the sun. Their position gave her a moment's pause, as Riku sat leaning against one of the walls, Sora in between his legs with his back resting against the older boy's chest and Riku's arms wrapped securely around him. It was very intimate, and Kairi actually blushed. She was even going to retreat, to let them have their privacy now that she had made sure they really were still here, but Sora caught her before she could disappear.

"Oh, hey, Kairi. Sorry we didn't wait for you earlier."

Kairi looked back around, expecting to see that Sora had scrambled away from Riku in embarrassment, but he was right where he had been, tucked into his silver-haired friend's arms like he belonged there, and he looked as comfortable as could be. The girl blinked. Sora had changed.

Then she realized the pair of them was looking at her expectantly, as she hadn't answered yet, and she blushed again. "O-oh… No, that's okay. I slept late this morning, so I don't mind." She smiled, then went to kneel beside them. "I had a dream last night."

"A dream?" Sora again. Riku was still quiet, seemingly to just hold his brunette friend and listen.

Kairi nodded. "I was in a dark place, and there were Heartless all around me. I couldn't see anything but their eyes, and there was no light anywhere." She rubbed her arms as though cold, though the day was already sweltering. "I started to run, and I was calling out for you. I ran for a long time, but finally I ran into you, Sora. I told you how scared I was, and you said it was because I didn't belong there." She hesitated a moment. "Then I… I told you we should go home, and you… you said… you already were." Biting her lip, she stared down at her lap and missed the significant look Riku and Sora shared.

Sora cleared his throat. "Well, it was just a dream, Kairi. We're still right here, and everything's okay, right?"

Their friend looked up and smiled, nodding firmly. "Right. Everything's back to normal now. But why are you guys hiding back here? Come on, it's a beautiful day, we should be out enjoying the sun!" As she stood and reached for their hands to drag them outside, she thought she heard Sora whisper something to Riku, something that sounded like, "Just pretend." It gave her a cold shiver, and she quickly insisted to herself she imagined it. The three of them went outside to play.

Later Riku and Sora stood on the beach, the wavelets lapping at their bare feet as they watched Kairi collect shells for yet another of her good luck charms. It was Riku who stepped closer to his friend and reached for his hand, which Sora offered easily. The younger boy's ocean eyes were fixed on the girl, his brow knit. His words were only audible to the taller teenager who stood so close to him.

"No… This isn't right."

Riku frowned and looked down at him. "Sora?"

"This isn't right," he repeated. "We can't leave her. She needs us. And she wouldn't understand our reasons." He winced a little as Riku's grip on his hand tightened almost to the point of pain.

"Stop it, Sora. You know it's for the best. We're not happy here. We don't _belong_ here. Kairi will get over us leaving. She's a strong girl."

"But _she_ wouldn't be happy if we left!" Sora insisted, then gasped as Riku jerked him around and gripped him by the shoulders, much more fiercely than he had the night before.

The older teenager's eyes were hard as glared into those of his young companion. "When are you going to stop thinking about everybody else and start thinking about yourself?" he hissed. Then his voice softened and grew almost sad, his grip loosening into a caress. "When are you going to start thinking about me?"

"Oh, Riku… I'm sorry…" Sora went on to say more, but Riku cut him off, releasing him sharply.

"Forget it. I should have realized she was most important to you, not me. Fine, you stay, but I'm still going." He pushed Sora aside and stalked off down the beach towards the dock.

"Riku, wait! That's not what I was going to say!" But Riku ignored him. Sora bit his lip hard, watching the tall figure climb into his boat and row away, and he didn't take his eyes off him until a soft, tiny hand – _So different from Riku's_, he thought without realizing it – touched his own.

"Sora…? What just happened?"

Sora forced a bright smile as he turned to Kairi. "Oh, nothing. You know how me and Riku are. We're always fighting over something!"

"Yeah, but I thought that had changed after your battle with Xemnas. You two were getting along so well. Like… in the tree earlier." Her cheeks went pink, and so did Sora's.

"Yeah, well…" He shrugged helplessly, then abruptly changed the subject. "Hey, come on! Let's see if we can get a game started with Tidus and the others!"

Kairi blinked. "Uh… sure, Sora. That sounds like fun." As her friend ran off to find the others, the redhead stayed where she was, watching him go and frowning. Sora had changed more than she'd realized.


End file.
